


The Thirteenth Word

by etcetera_nine



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Jareth is the best babysitter, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, late '80s / early '90s sitcom references, macaroni and cheese, or maybe a truce, physics lessons that are obvious metaphors, why do i even bother tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-10-26 13:57:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17747168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etcetera_nine/pseuds/etcetera_nine
Summary: Much to Sarah's delight, Toby's first word was Sarah. Much to Sarah's dismay, Toby's thirteenth word… was Jareth.Originally published in 2012 on FanFiction.net.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published in 2012 on FanFiction.net.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally published on FanFiction.net in 2012.

Toby's first word was Sarah.

After everything I've done for you, you annoyingly adorable pain in the ass, my name better be the first thing you say, she thought fondly, as he laughed and babbled at her from his crib.

Granted, it was more "Sawah" than "Sarah" – but it was her name, it was directed at her, and it was two syllables.

Clearly, her brother was a genius.

Toby's second word was dada, which made his father extraordinarily proud. His third word was dog, which made his mother a little confused.

"It'll happen," Sarah's father reassured his wife. "The M is harder for babies to say than the D. There've been studies." Karen nodded, but still seemed unconvinced.

Then came cookie, followed by yes – which Toby quickly learned was the best response to "Toby, you want a cookie?"

"Cookie," he would say, very seriously. "Yes."

Then came bird, and ball. "Really?" asked Karen. "You'll say ball and not mama?"

Sarah tried to help. "Who's this?" she cried, pointing at herself.

"Sawah!"

"And this?" She pointed at her father.

"Dada!"

"And this?" Merlin raised his head, and wagged his tail hopefully, sensing attention.

"…dog!" Toby crowed. Merlin woofed.

"Annnnnd…" said Sarah, pointing at her stepmother. "Who's this?" Karen beamed, expectantly.

Toby just laughed.

He did say it eventually, of course, but by then Karen didn't have time to bask in the glow of her child's attention, because his next word was no.

Suddenly, everything was a no. Sarah was a no, her parents were a no. Merlin was a no. Lancelot was a no no no no no. Cheerios, footie pajamas, the car seat, Big Bird – all nos.

Then Toby discovered Thomas the Tank Engine, which was a big yes. Train came next, followed quickly by plane, and then car.

Now, by Sarah's count, Toby was up to 12 words. She wondered what the next one would be, one afternoon when her parents were out, and she was babysitting. She was in the kitchen, making herself an early dinner of macaroni and cheese from a box, and worrying about her physics homework. Toby was in the playpen in the living room.

"Who's your favorite sister?" Sarah called out to him, so he wouldn't think she had left him alone.

"Sawah!"

"Who do you love the most?"

"Sawah!"

"Who is going to feed you strained pears, if you are very good and keep quiet while she does her physics homework?"

"Sawah!"

They played this game a lot.

Turning off the stove, and giving the macaroni and cheese one last stir, Sarah called out, "Who's your favorite babysitter?"

And Toby, very clearly, said "Jareth."

Sarah stopped dead, her right hand gripping the pot on the stove. "Toby?" she called, tentatively.

Silence.

"Oh no," said Sarah, "oh no oh no oh no oh not _again_." She ran into the living room, still holding the pot of macaroni and cheese.

Toby was in his playpen, standing up, looking at her and grinning. Sarah gasped in relief.

"Toby," she said, putting her free hand across her pounding heart, "you can't _say_ that word. That's a very, very _bad_ word, okay?" He laughed, still staring at her happily.

Sighing, she turned to go back to the kitchen – and realized that Toby hadn't been staring at her.

He had been staring behind her.

At the Goblin King.

She screamed, and instinctively threw the pot of macaroni and cheese at the Goblin King's head. He ducked, and it hit the hallway wall behind him with a clang, the pot clattering to the ground and the orange pasta sliding down the wall in gloopy chunks.

Toby started to cry.

"Now Sarah," said the Goblin King. "Is that any way to treat an old friend?" He walked past her, into the living room, towards Toby.

"You – " started Sarah. "You have – you have no – "

The Goblin King paid her no attention. "Look," he said, pouting. "You've frightened the baby." He bent down, as if to pick him up.

A hot burst of anger replaced her fear. "Don't you dare touch him," she said. "You have no power over me – you have no power over my brother!"

The Goblin King looked at her. "I know," he said, and picked up Toby.

Toby stopped crying.

The Goblin King began walking around the living room slowly, jiggling Toby against his chest to soothe him. A tiny part of Sarah's fear and anger unraveled, just a bit, at the sight. He looked like a natural. He looked like he knew what he was doing.

Of course he does, Sarah, you idiot, she told herself. Because he _steals babies._ As his _job._

"Get out," Sarah said, quickly. "Get out of my house – and leave my brother," she added.

The Goblin King looked like he was considering it, weighing his options. "No."

"You have no power over us, Goblin King," she said, her voice becoming shrill. "Get out of my house!"

"You keep saying those words," he told her. "I do not think they mean what you think they mean."

What?

"I know I have no power over either of you," the Goblin King said, patiently. "But your brother called me here, by my name. So you see – it's him, who has power over me."

_What?_

"And," the Goblin King continued. "I don't think he wants me to leave. Do you want me to leave, Toby?"

Toby looked up at him. "No," he said, decisively, and pulled on the Goblin King's hair.

The Goblin King raised his eyebrows at Sarah, and shrugged the shoulder that Toby wasn't braced against. "You see?" he asked, spreading his free hand out, wide. "I am helpless."

"But – that doesn't – you don't – " Sarah sputtered. "He's a _baby_. He doesn't know what he's saying! I caught him trying to eat Merlin's dog food the other day!"

The Goblin King tsked at Toby, who laughed, and pulled on his hair even harder. "That actually hurts, you know," he said to him.

"Right," said Sarah. "Enough!" She stormed over to the two of them, getting as close as she dared. She tried to ignore the memory that the closeness triggered, of the last time she had been this close to the Goblin King, and what he had said to her then.

It was a trick, she told herself. A trick.

"Toby," Sarah said to her brother. She pointed at the Goblin King. "This man, is a very, very bad man."

A trick. Only a trick.

"You need to make him go home, okay?" she continued, "So when I say, 'Toby, would you like the Goblin King to go home,' you say, 'Yes.' Got it?"

Toby shoved his fist in his mouth and drooled.

"Okay. Toby, would you like the Goblin King to go home?"

Toby removed his fist from his mouth, said, "No," and shoved it back in.

"Hmm," said the Goblin King. "I'm afraid you're no match for him, precious thing."

"You're not going to leave, are you?" asked Sarah, desperately.

"Hmm. I think… No." He smirked at her.

"I cannot believe this," Sarah said. She walked towards the couch, in a daze, and slumped down. "I cannot believe this. I beat you. I beat you, and I was going to eat my macaroni and cheese, and try to do my physics homework, and then maybe watch the Cosby Show." She looked up at him. "I beat you, Goblin King."

His eyes searched her face. He walked over to the playpen, settled Toby inside, and made his way back to her, slowly, watching her the whole time. When he reached the couch, he crouched down in front of it, by her feet.

"I know you did," he said. "I remember it, very well."

"Do you?" she asked him.

"Yes," he said. "Do you? Do you remember… everything?"

She did.

She remembered the stench of the Bog and the glitter on the bricks and the dead air in the oubliette and those things that took off their heads and Ludo and Sir Didymus and Hoggle – and the peach. And the stiffness of her hair and the heaviness of the diamonds in her ears and the tightness of the dress where it bit at her waist and the pinch of the shoes – and the dance. And the song.

She remembered everything.

"Some parts… better than others," she told him, her voice a little unsteady.

His expression softened. He nodded. "Sarah," he said, "do you need…" He stopped.

What? Did she need what? She needed a lot of things. She was sixteen, after all. But what could he give to her that she needed? A villain? A hero? A friend? A _boyfriend_? A… lover?

No, she told herself. Sixteen, sixteen, sixteen. No. Not yet.

His eyes were still on hers.

Then Toby said, "Cookie?" and the moment passed.

"Do you need help with your physics homework?" the Goblin King said, his face neutral again. "I have studied the subject, extensively. I could offer you my assistance."

"In exchange for?" asked Sarah.

He smirked. "So very clever. I ask for something… so little."

Sarah folded her arms. "Well?"

"Say my name," said the Goblin King. "That's all. Just the once."

"You're trying to trick me, aren't you?" said Sarah, slowly.

The Goblin King raised his eyebrows, but remained silent.

"What will happen if I say your name?"

The Goblin King still didn't answer.

"Will I have… power over you? If I say your name?" she asked.

"Yes," the Goblin King acknowledged, after a moment.

"Jareth," she said, immediately, and then, "Now get out of my house."

"Ah," said Jareth. "It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid. Toby called me, so Toby must make me leave. So sorry." He cocked his head, his face a mask of fake pity. "Now. About that physics homework?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spot the Princess Bride reference ;)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally published on FanFiction.net in 2012.

I have no idea why I'm listening to him, Sarah thought, as she stormed upstairs to her bedroom to get her bookbag. It was light, for a Thursday – she only had physics to worry about for tonight. She had already read ahead for English – it was Hamlet, anyhow, and she had read that one years ago – and she had done her pre-calc during lunch.

Merlin was asleep on her bed. "Some dog you are," she told him. "We have a Goblin King in our living room, and you couldn't care less." His ears twitched, but he didn't wake up.

She stormed back down. Jareth had promised not to touch Toby while she was out of the room, and he had kept his word, as far as she could see. He had his back to her, and was studying the pictures on the mantelpiece. She stopped, in the doorway, almost afraid to interrupt him.

"Sawah," said Toby, pointing. Jareth turned.

"Sarah, indeed," he agreed. He gestured towards the couch. "Shall we?"

Pulling her physics notebook and textbook out of her bag, she sat down at one end of couch. He joined her at the other. She pulled her books close, and tucked her feet underneath her. She ran her eyes over him, warily, taking in the texture of his boots, the fabric of his clothing, the black leather gloves. That strange, heavy pendant, where it lay against his chest. She looked up, into his eyes, and realized that she had been staring – and that he knew it.

"What do you need?" he said, his eyes sparkling.

"Uhhh…" said Sarah.

"What do you need explained to you," he clarified. "With your physics homework."

"Oh," said Sarah. "Um. Everything, I guess. Can you start at the beginning? I don't understand any of it."

"The beginning… of physics?"

"Yes," agreed Sarah.

He laughed. "Let me see your books."

She handed them over – and then immediately pulled her notebook back, out of his hand. He looked up at her, surprised.

"You can't look in that one," she said, quickly. "There's… I mean, the notes don't make any sense. The problems are in the book, anyway. The end of chapter three."

He cocked his head at her, studying her warily. "If you insist."

She slipped the notebook back, carefully, into her bookbag.

He thumbed through the first few chapters. Sarah waited, gnawing at the side of her thumbnail.

"That's a filthy habit," he said, without even looking up.

Sarah scowled, but stopped chewing.

He skimmed further through the book, making "Hmm" noises occasionally, and once laughing out loud and saying to himself, "Come now, surely – that's ridiculous." When he got to the end of the third chapter, he read over the questions, then closed the book.

"How did you do on the first two sets of questions?" he asked her.

"Zero. I got them all wrong. I can't get another zero – it'll mess up my whole average this semester, and bring down my GPA."

"Your what?" asked Jareth. "Nevermind." He looked at her thoughtfully. "You're a smart girl, Sarah, I don't see why you would have trouble with this."

Sarah felt her face coloring. He thought she was _smart_? She pushed his words to the back of her mind, to think about later. "I don't know... it might be my teacher. I mean, she kind of drones on and on. I usually just draw in my notebook or look out the window and daydream about – " she caught herself. "About… stuff."

"Stuff, hmm?" He was still looking at her, still thoughtful. "Well. In that case, we shall start at the beginning. Newton, then." He looked toward the playpen. "Perhaps Toby can help?"

"Toby?"

"Set him on the floor in front of us, Sarah, if you would be so kind."

She did as he said, Toby laughing with delight at being included. She plopped him on the rug, and looked up at Jareth. "Now what?"

"Watch," he said. He twisted his wrist, and a crystal appeared. He placed it on the rug, a few feet from Toby. "Newton's first law," he stated. "An object at rest stays at rest, unless a force acts upon it." He gestured towards the motionless crystal. "Understood?"

Sarah nodded.

"Now, if a force does act upon it – " he reached down, and poked the crystal, spinning it lazily towards Toby – "it will continue to move, unless stopped by – " the crystal hit Toby's foot, making him laugh again – "another force. Understood?"

"Well, no," said Sarah. "Not really. I mean, nothing ever keeps going like that, without stopping. Nothing ever continues, without changing, does it? Even if that crystal didn't hit Toby, didn't hit anything, it wouldn't keep rolling around forever, would it?"

"Your thinking is too narrow, Sarah," Jareth told her. "Things are not always what they seem. Just because you don't perceive there to be a force, doesn't mean there isn't one."

"Well – where is there never a force, then?"

"In a vacuum," Jareth told her. "Like space."

"Oh," said Sarah. "Okay." Well then.

Toby chose that moment to pick the crystal up and lick it.

"Now," continued Jareth. "Newton's second law. May I have a paper and a pen, please." Sarah reached into her bookbag and handed them over. On the paper, he drew a strange looking E, a capital F, an equals sign, then a lowercase m and a. His handwriting looked old, the letters slanted and spiky.

"I'm not very good at math either, I'm afraid," Sarah told him.

"All this says," said Jareth, in a patient voice, "is that the harder you force something, and the smaller it is, the quicker it will run away from you."

"Really?" Sarah asked. She scrunched her face up at the equation. "It looks more complicated than that."

"Well," he conceded, "it is more complicated than that. But that's all you and I need to worry about at the moment. And now we come to Newton's third law." He cracked her book back open, and Sarah couldn't help but notice that it fell immediately to the page he was looking for. He read out loud, "To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts."

"The actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal?" asked Sarah. "Contrary parts? That doesn't even make sense! What does that even mean – what's a contrary part?"

"You're a contrary part," murmured Jareth, under his breath. To Sarah's surprise, she laughed. He looked up at her, amused.

"What?" she said. "Why are you looking at me like that? That was funny!"

"You're surprised that I'm funny?" he asked.

"Well… yes!" she said. "You're… you're the villain! You're not supposed to be funny! You're the bad guy!"

"Am I?" he closed the book with a snap, and leaned closer to her. "What have I done, that was so… bad?"

"Well," she said, surprised. "You took Toby – isn't that obvious?"

"I was only doing what you asked," he replied.

"But – " said Sarah, feeling herself getting angry again – "that's not the point, and you know it! You cheated, and you changed the rules, and you lied – "

"No. I never lied. Not once," said Jareth, calmly.

Sarah paused, and something in the back of her mind chanted _a trick a trick a trick a trick_. She shushed it. "You… didn't?"

"Not once," he repeated. "As for the cheating, and changing the rules – to that, I will admit. I would do it all again, too." He grinned. "It was most entertaining. Well," he amended. "Maybe I would not do it again, now. You have beaten me, as you said – so I am not your villain anymore, am I?"

Sarah swallowed. "So," she said quietly. "If you're not my villain anymore, what are you?"

"What do you need me to be?" he asked.

They stared at each other.

And Toby said, very loudly, "COOKIE."

Feeling grateful for the distraction, Sarah went over to him. Her face felt like it was on fire as she reached down. "I think you want some dinner, don't you?" she asked her brother. He nodded.

"Maybe we should… take a break," Sarah said casually, to Jareth. "I need to have dinner."

"Of course," Jareth said, courteously. "Please, go ahead. I don't want to interrupt your dinner."

"Well," said Sarah. "You kind of already did." She gestured to the hallway. "My dinner is currently sliding down the wall over there, so… want a sandwich?"

Jareth cocked his head, interested. "What kind of sandwich?" he asked.

Sarah made them both triple decker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which Jareth seemed to enjoy, after a bit of examination. They ate in the kitchen, so Sarah could feed Toby, who, for once, seemed happy to eat his dinner instead of wear it, or throw it, or drop it on the floor for Merlin. Merlin, for his part, thundered downstairs the second he heard the jar of peanut butter opening, and lodged himself under the table, whining occasionally. "I'll feed you after," Sarah told him, as she ate her sandwich. "Don't look at me like that!" He whimpered.

Jareth laughed. "So very cruel," he admonished her, and tore off a corner of his own sandwich for her dog. Merlin wolfed it down, then rested his head in Jareth's lap.

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"You cannot be everyone's friend, all the time," he told her, then said, "And, Sarah, speaking of your friends – have you enjoyed my subjects, coming to visit you?"

Sarah stopped, her sandwich halfway to her mouth. She put her hand down. In the months since the Labyrinth, Hoggle and Sir Didymus and Ludo had come through her mirror several times, when she had been alone in the house. She was rarely alone, though, and the visits weren't as often as she wanted them to be. "You knew about that? You knew they've been coming here, to see me?"

"Of course. I know everything that goes on in my kingdom," he said, modestly.

"Does that mean… they have to stop?"

"If I wanted them to stop," he told her, "I would have stopped them."

"Oh," said Sarah. She resumed eating. "I'll tell them," she said, through a mouthful of peanut butter. "They'll be so relieved, I think they thought you would send them to the Bog of Eternal Stench or something if you found out – "

"Sarah," said Jareth. He put his hand over hers – the one that wasn't shoving a sandwich in her face. "I would much prefer if you didn't say anything."

She swallowed the mouthful of peanut butter. "But… I don't understand."

Jareth smiled. "I wouldn't expect you to. You're not the Goblin King, after all."

He removed his hand.

They finished eating, and Sarah put the plates in the sink and fed Merlin. Jareth watched her closely from his seat at the table. When she was done, she picked up Toby and carried him back into the living room. Merlin, having inhaled his dinner, followed, curling up on his bed near the couch and falling asleep almost immediately. "I know I promised you strained pears," she told Toby, as she put him back into the playpen, "but I'm not done with my physics homework yet, and then it'll be your bedtime."

"We are almost finished," said Jareth from behind her. She turned around, and watched him settle into the couch. "One more law, and I believe you will be able to do your homework." She joined him, realizing that she wasn't quite so worried how close she was sitting to him, this time.

"Now," he said. "As I was saying. Newton's third law. It simply means that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Sarah shook her head. "One more time."

"It's quite simple," Jareth told her. "Say, for every push, there is a pull. Here. I will show you."

Sarah watched as he reached over, and took her hand. It seemed to happen in slow motion.

His fingers wrapped around hers. The leather of his gloves was very, very soft, and underneath it, she could feel the warmth of him. He pushed back against her hand, with his. "For every time I push against you, you pull against me, an equal amount. Now. You try."

She pushed back, a tiny bit. He smiled.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes," said Sarah. "I do."

He let go.

"I guess I'll do my homework now," she said.

She did, tearing a blank page from the back of her notebook, carefully. He was right – she did understand it better, now, and the problems didn't seem so hard. She made her way through them, slowly and steadily. When she was confused, she asked Jareth for help, and he helped.

While she worked, he played with Toby. He trailed several crystals from his fingers, all different sizes and colors, which lit up and played music when Toby touched them. Toby was enthralled, and Sarah wondered how he was ever going to sleep again – what Jareth was doing was much more entertaining than the bumblebee mobile that Toby had above his crib now.

He _was_ good with Toby, baby-stealer or no, Sarah thought, decisively, after she had finished the last problem. She watched them, thinking. And he was a good teacher, too. Patient, and funny, and clever – and he seemed to like her questions. He thought she was smart.

He had told her so.

"Cookie?" asked Toby, hopefully.

"No cookie," said Sarah, standing up. "Bed." She held out her arms, and Jareth passed him to her, smoothly.

"Goodnight Toby," said Jareth, and Toby said, "Yes."

"Ah," said Jareth. "Now that you've had your fun, I'm allowed to leave, am I? How very generous of you."

"You're leaving?" asked Sarah. She was surprised to hear something that sounded like disappointment in her voice.

"I can," said Jareth. "But… I don't have to, I suppose."

"I was just going to watch some TV," Sarah said. "If you want to… hang around?"

"All right," Jareth said. He smiled. "I'll… hang around, then." He sat down on the couch.

Sarah headed up the stairs with her brother. Although she considered herself a pretty normal girl, she mused, as she tucked Toby into his crib, a lot of strange things certainly happened to her.

"Today was a weird one, huh Toby?" she asked him. "I wonder what will happen tomorrow? Or the next day? Or the one after that?"

"Jar – " began Toby.

"Shhhh," Sarah said to her brother. "Don't you start that again. He's going home soon. But maybe, if you're very good, and very quiet, he'll come back another time."

"Go bye bye?" asked Toby.

"Toby," said Sarah, in disbelief. "I think that was a whole sentence."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally published in 2012 on FanFiction.net.
> 
> *Trigger warning in case you need it!* This chapter contains a mention of Bill Cosby in reference to The Cosby Show, which I used to love. I wouldn't have included it if this was written a couple years later. It kind of makes me wince to see it now, but I hope it doesn't take you out of the story too much.

When she went back downstairs, Jareth was waiting for her, on the couch. She sat next to him, a little closer than the last time, and the time before that.

"What are we watching?" he asked her.

"The Cosby Show," Sarah told him. She switched on the TV. "It's about a family in New York. The dad's a doctor, and the mom's a lawyer, and they have five kids."

Jareth stared at the screen. "That man," he said, "is wearing the most atrocious sweater I have ever seen."

Sarah laughed.

They watched The Cosby Show, and then A Different World, which came after it. She liked that show, too – "You see that girl," she said to Jareth, pointing when Denise Huxtable came on the screen – "she used to be in the show we just watched, but they gave her a spinoff." Jareth made appropriate noises of understanding, but she wasn't sure if he was really paying attention.

Sometimes she would feel his eyes on her, when she was laughing at something one of the characters had said, and once, when she had sighed, quietly, at a sad moment. But when she looked over at him, to be sure, his eyes were straight ahead.

"They are studying at a university?" Jareth asked her, about A Different World.

"Yeah," she said. "They're all away at school."

"And will you go away to school, as well?"

"I don't know," said Sarah, considering. "I mean, I'm thinking about it, of course. I'm trying to make sure my grades are good, keep my options open, you know. Dad's been bugging me to do some extra-curriculars, he says they'll look good on my college applications. But I also think he feels kind of guilty that I'm always stuck watching Toby. Him and Karen work a lot."

"Extra-curriculars?" asked Jareth.

"You know," she said. "Like, outside of school stuff. Like sports, or debate team, or orchestra. I don't really do much, besides read. And occasionally solve labyrinths and beat Goblin Kings and their armies," she continued, looking at Jareth out of the corner of her eye. She was rewarded with a laugh. "There's a theater club, at my school. I was thinking of joining it."

"You should," he told her, still smiling. "I can see you enjoying it."

"Maybe," she mused. "But college seems like a long time away, still. Anyway, I don't even know if I'd want to leave – I mean, Karen's not so bad, now, and I would miss dad, and…"

"And Toby?" prompted Jareth.

"Yeah," said Sarah. "He's not so bad either," she admitted.

"No," said Jareth. "He's not so bad. Funny how that happens, isn't it?"

"Yeah," she agreed. "It is funny."

At some point, during Cheers, she fell asleep. She woke up when she heard her dad's key in the lock and noticed, right away, that Night Court was on TV, that she had been covered by a blanket, and that Jareth was gone.

"What in the world," exclaimed Karen, "is all this macaroni and cheese doing all over the hallway?"

"Sorry, Karen," she called, still half asleep, and staring in confusion at the blanket. "I tripped. I'll clean it up!"

She tried, but it was pretty useless. A large part of the wall was now stained orange, probably for good. Maybe she could ask Hoggle if he had anything in his arsenal that removed dried-on orange goo from wallpaper. Considering he had a spray that stunned fairies, it was a fair bet that he might. She'd ask him after school tomorrow, she decided, grabbing her books from the living room and making her way upstairs. For now, she gave up.

When Sarah got up to her room, Jareth was waiting for her, sitting on her bed and thumbing through her well worn copy of The Labyrinth.

That she kept on her bedside table.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, trying to cover her embarrassment with anger. "This is my _bedroom_!"

"You fell asleep. I didn't want to disturb you. I didn't say goodbye to you, properly," Jareth said, his voice low.

"What… what do you mean?"

He got up, and walked toward her, slowly. When he stood in front of her, he took her face in his gloved hand, stroking her cheek lightly with his thumb. With the other hand, he pushed her hair away from her eyes. He bent his face closer, his mouth by her ear. He smelled very, very good.

Was he going to… was he going to _kiss_ her?

"Sarah," he whispered. "If you need me, call."

He stepped back.

"You want me to call you?" she asked, slightly dazed. She tried to resist the urge to shake her head. "Like… on the _phone_?"

"You've said my name," said Jareth. "If you need me, you can call my name, and I will come to you."

"If I need you," repeated Sarah. "All right. If I need you, I'll call."

He nodded once, flashed her a quick grin, and then vanished.

Sarah walked over to her bed, and sat down where he had been. She let her bookbag drop to the ground. There was a slight indentation in her covers. She wondered if it seemed warmer, where he had been, or if that was just her imagination. She ran her fingers over the covers, lightly.

She probably would need him, at some point – at least for help with her physics homework. Or maybe she would need some company, when Toby was asleep, and she wanted to watch a movie that was a little too scary to watch alone. Or maybe she would need an extra hand when she was trying to make cookies for Home Ec class, someone to help her crack the eggs. Or maybe…

She reached down into her bookbag and pulled out her physics notebook, the one she hadn't let Jareth see. She did daydream in class, and draw. Her teacher's monotonous droning was the perfect background for her brain to drift away, to open up and let in the magical bits and pieces that she had seen and remembered – and those that she hadn't seen, but that some small part of her knew she would, one day.

She drew them all. She wasn't very good, and neither were her sketches, but they were all there. All her friends. The little worm who invited her to meet his wife. The guards from the doors. The tiny fairy that bit her. Even some goblins.

Scattered across the margins and bottoms of the pages, she had drawn crystals. And, on today's page of half-formed notes, one pair of beautiful, slightly asymmetrical eyes.

She studied them. She hadn't gotten them quite right – she knew that now. The eyebrows were all wrong, for one thing, and the lashes should be much, much longer. She tried to fix it.

When she was done, she studied them again. Better, she thought. But still not quite right. She would have to see them again, to be sure.

Underneath the picture, very clearly, she wrote "Jareth."

She didn't think she would say it out loud again just yet. But she would call him, she knew. Maybe not tomorrow, or the next day, or the one after that. But eventually. Soon, even. She would need him.

Every now and again.

For no reason at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end :) Hope you enjoyed!


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